Demand for Green Buildings in Indian Cities

A burgeoning population, escalating economic development and internal migration to urban centres from rural areas has resulted in India’s cities bursting at the seams and plagued with numerous environmental problems, which, negatively impact the health and well-being of its residents. Contiguously, the increasing scarcity of environmental resources, has transformed them into economic goods, with people willing to pay more for better environmental quality. One of the sectors where environmental quality is explicitly traded is real estate ; where buyers bid up the prices of residential properties that enjoy proximity to and/or have a provision for facilities that reduce environmental pollution and wastage (energy efficiency, water conservation and waste management processes). This study seeks to ascertain the demand for eco-friendly apartments in gated and non-gated communities in select Indian cities by different income-buyer groups by making use of hedonic price modeling. Some of the issues that the study shall investigate are differences in demand across income groups, differences in facilities available in apartments catering to each of these income groups; factors that predispose some companies to undertake construction of such apartments and reasons why some companies obtain the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) certification.